Welcome to Writer Wednesday! It’s a magical week, as today we’re hosting Linda Wisdom, author of books that will bewitch you (‘Cause she writes romances about witches and other fun, magickal things. See? I funny.)
What inspires you to write?
I’d have to say it’s the voices in my head. <G> Characters will either tap me on the shoulder or scream in my ear and tell me what I’m supposed to be doing. They usually like to do it when I’m out running errands. My Notepad app on my phone and tablet are handy for quickly writing down enough words to remind me what they were talking about.
Which type of romance do you love most, and why?
I’d have to say paranormal/urban fantasy. I loved paranormal years ago before it was popular and was always searching for reading material. I started reading a lot of factual books about ghost towns and legends. It was soon easier to just write my own paranormal books, even if they weren’t popular back then.
What one piece of advice do you wish you’d had when first starting out?
Talk to people already in the business so you don’t feel alone. I didn’t know anyone when I started out. I just sat down and wrote two books and was lucky enough to sell those two books to Silhouette Romance a month after submission. I didn’t meet another romance author for almost two years. RWA wasn’t around when I began. The first RWA conference was an eye-opener for me.
Find Hotel Hexhere, and Free Spiritshere. I hope you also visit Linda at her website.
Thanks so much for joining us, Linda! It’s been a delight.
Stopping by today, we have the fabulous historical romance author, Kelly Bowen! She chats just a bit about herself and her love for romance, then dishes on her latest release, A Good Rogue Is Hard To Find (the titles of her books crack me up, people. Could there BE a better name for a book?).
What type of romance do you love most and why?
My very favorite type of romance is when the plot uses a friends-turned-lovers trope. It doesn’t matter what genre of romance it is, I love the depth of the relationship that two characters have when they’ve already seen the best and worst of each other. And the sexual tension between friends discovering something more is deliciously intense.
Two things people don’t know about me:
1. I coach volleyball.
2. I am a certified open water diver. Which is ironic, considering I live about as geographically far away from an ocean that you can get (and I’m not counting Hudson’s Bay as an ocean!)
Favorite romance novel of all time:
One of my favorite romances of all time is Kris Kennedy’s Defiant. I love strong heroines who aren’t waiting for rescue, and strong heroes who are a match for such a heroine. The love story that develops and winds through this awesome adventure was mesmerizing.
HE THOUGHT HE’D SEEN IT ALL . . .
The rogue’s life has been good to William Somerhall: He has his fortune, his racehorses, and his freedom. Then he moves in with his mother. It seems the eccentric Dowager Duchess of Worth has been barely skirting social disaster-assisted by one Miss Jenna Hughes, who is far too bright and beautiful to be wasting her youth as a paid companion. Now home to keep his mother from ruin, William intends to learn what’s afoot by keeping his friends close-and the tempting Miss Hughes closer still.
. . . UNTIL HE MEETS HER
He’s tall, dark, and damnably intelligent-unfortunately for Jenna. She and the duchess are in the “redistribution business,” taking from the rich and giving to the poor, and it’s going great – until he shows up. But even as William plots to make an honest woman out of her, Jenna will use all her wiles to reveal just how bad a rogue he can be . . .
Publisher’s Weekly says, “Bowen’s impish sense of humor is expressed by lively, entertaining characters in this wickedly witty Regency. Pure romantic fun in the con-game comedy vein.”
Hello, and welcome to another Writer Wednesday. A few weeks ago, I noticed no author had claimed this date. As I was prepping to solicit participants, it occurred to me that since my debut novel, A Man of Character, was coming out the day before, I could interview myself! Bwah ha ha … so, well, here it goes: my answers to three of questions, just like I’ve been asking everybody else.
Which type of romance do you love best? Why?
I’m a historical romance lover at heart. They’re the first type of romance novels I ever read, and the ones that suck me in, time and time again. I think that’s because a) I love history, and love learning about / imagining what it was like to live in other eras and places, and b) the distance of time helps render the story all the more magical for me. I’ve always been a sucker for the whole “Once Upon A Time” thing.
Recently I’ve branched out and read a number of contemporaries, because I stumbled across fabulous authors like Katy Regnery and Kathryn Barrett (and many more!) and wanted to read their books.
But my heart belongs to Regency England. I’ll pick up a novel about that era any day.
Name one interesting thing you learned in researching/writing your last book.
I needed a fancy place in New York City to which a wealthy businessman might take a date. Not being a big city person at all, I had no clue, so I asked a college friend who now lives there (thanks, Liz!). “Rao’s,” she answered right away. I’d never heard of it. But I spent an afternoon happily Googling away, learning as much as I could, and thus the fictitious Joey’s was born (yes, that’s an homage to Joey Tribbiani of Friends fame–my husband loves him).
A few days after this restaurant-researching adventure, I went grocery shopping (the boring real life of an author) and discovered Rao’s pasta sauce sitting there among the zillion spaghetti sauce options. Although it was a bit pricey, I had to try it–and it’s now become my family’s favorite sauce. The things you learn.
Name two things people don’t know about you.
1. I skipped first grade. But I’m convinced the only reason I did well enough on the tests to do so is because the man administering the exams was really cute (yes, I remember that!). It motivated me. I was six, people. Guess I knew my heart was in romance from a very early age.
My husband channeling Elvis at our wedding reception.
2. OK, I’m cheating a bit, because if you know me in real life, you know I’m a ’50s Elvis fan. I didn’t give a fig about Elvis until my senior year in college, though. That was 1995, and because it was Elvis’ 60th birthday, his old movies and Elvis documentaries were playing all over TV. That young Elvis, with his oddly innocent, yet oh-so-seductive face, that voice, and that hip swivel … I was a goner.
Which I was extra grateful for two years later, because if I hadn’t fallen for Elvis, I wouldn’t have made an Elvis website (hey, I needed something to do to escape the stress of grad school, and teaching myself HTML in the baby days of the web seemed ideal). If I hadn’t had that website, I wouldn’t have met my husband. By freaky chance, we met online (way before that was common) when I asked a question about Elvis, and he answered. We emailed. We discovered we were at the same university, both in grad school (what are the chances?). We met for lunch. We kept meeting. I found my happily-ever-after.
Elvis brought my husband and me together. Thank ya, thank ya verra much.
What’s your favorite romance novel of all time, and why?
The book I come back to again and again, though, the one romance I kept when I (stupidly) purged my entire collection in my mid 30s, is Lynn Kurland‘s Stardust of Yesterday. Something about that story just hooked me like no other–probably the time-traveling element, since that idea has always intrigued me, as well as the new-to-me idea of ghost as hero. The fact that the ghost hero and definitely in-the-flesh heroine literally couldn’t touch each other for great parts of the book heightened the romance and tension for me.
So there you have it.
Interested in knowing about my own new romance release (It still feels bizarre to say that!)?
Check out the blurb for A Man of Character, my paranormal romantic comedy in which a bookstore owner learns that the perfect fantasy might just be reality:
What would you do if you discovered the men you were dating were fictional characters you’d created long ago?
Thirty-five-year-old Catherine Schreiber has shelved love for good. Keeping her ailing bookstore afloat takes all her time, and she’s perfectly fine with that. So when several men ask her out in short order, she’s not sure what to do…especially since something about them seems eerily familiar.
Caught between fantasy and reality, Cat must decide which—or whom—she wants more.
Blending humor with unusual twists, including a magical manuscript, a computer scientist in shining armor, and even a Regency ball, A Man of Character tells a story not only of love, but also of the lengths we’ll go for friendship, self-discovery, and second chances.
You can find A Man of Character on Amazon – available for Kindle or in paperback. And if you read it, I’d love to know what you think!
Thanks for hanging with me today! Come back next Wednesday for another exciting (and far less myopically self-centered) Writer Wednesday!
(Fellow authors, I do have openings for Wednesdays starting in June, so if you’d like to participate, just shoot me an email.)
Welcome to another Writer Wednesday! Today we have with us Caroline Clemmons, who’s writing Texas, one romance at a time. She sat down with me (figuratively, of course-the internet is a marvelous thing, but as far as I know, it hasn’t yet mastered teleportation) to answer a few questions, and tell us about her latest book, O’Neill’s Texas Bride.
Which type of romance do you love most, and why?
Although I’m an eclectic reader, my favorite is western historical romance. I love visiting the Old West in a book with a hero and heroine with whom I can identify. Of course, I wouldn’t have wanted to live then, because I do love my A/C and appliances.
What fellow romance author do you recommend reading, and why?
Geri Foster has a new 1940s series out called Women of Courage that is terrific. I also love her action-packed Falcon Securities series. Actually, there are many wonderful authors writing now–too many to list, in fact.
What’s your favorite romance novel of all time, and why?
Prince Charming, by Julie Garwood, because it combines English Victorian and American Western in an unforgettable story that I reread every couple of years. There are several books I reread to study descriptions and plotting: Lord Perfect, by Loretta Chase; The Promise of Jenny Jones, by Maggie Osborne; and For The Roses, by Julie Garwood.
And now, let’s hear about O’Neill’s Texas Bride:
Stella Clayton is determined to find a better life for her family, but so far she’s stuck in a life she hates.
Finn O’Neill longs for his own ranch so he can join his brother-in-law raising horses. To achieve this, he’s agreed to work undercover to discover who’s causing trouble at Farland Coal Mine.
Finn’s fallen for Stella and she for him . . . but a killer is determined Finn won’t survive.
Want to find out more about Caroline? Connect with her here:
Welcome back to another fabulous Writer Wednesday! Today Lissa Matthews, who’s sassy and sultry, with a little bit of naughty (oh, wait, maybe that’s her books…), joins us and gives us a peek into her writerly life – and gives some excellent advice for newbie writers, which applies equally to life in general, I’d say!
What inspires you to write?
Everything. I’ve been weaving fairy tales since I was a kid and started writing in Jr. High. It’s how I escaped the reality of some situations I didn’t know how to deal with. It’s how I explored feelings when I didn’t know how to talk or express them in any other way. Everything I see, do, experience, witness, hear is an inspiration.
Name one interesting thing you learned in researching/writing your last book.
I’ll share three. In researching/writing The Tattooed Barista, I learned that mobile coffee karts are becoming a big deal. I learned that frosting melts beautiful and creamy when hot espresso is poured on top of it. I learned that I really like music from the ’40s.
What one piece of advice do you wish you’d had when first starting out?
Listen to yourself, your gut, your heart, your mind. Don’t let anyone tell you how to write, what to write, who to impress, how to carry yourself. Just be yourself. Just be genuine. Just be authentic. You’ll be happier that way. (ML’s note: LOVE this!)
What’s your favorite romance novel of all time, and why?
Linda Howard’s After The Night. It’s emotional, painful, raw, erotic. It’s full of every emotion and a strong, fragile heroine. It’s passionate and I have read it over and over and over again. I am always amazed that I get sucked into it from the first page, as though I’m reading it for the first time.
Want to know more about Lissa’s books? You’re in luck, because here are the blurbs:
The Tattoed Barista – COMING SOON!
Derek Grayson couldn’t lie his way out of a paper bag, but somehow he’s managed to convince his less-than-approving mother of his engagement to the teal haired, dangerously curved, tattoo covered, coffee cart owning girl named Peggy.
Peg, not ‘Peggy’, is far from amused by Derek’s fib, but the way he kissed her, left her wondering what might have been if she hadn’t been paid to play along.
The stakes are higher than the original bargaining price, a new business is getting off the ground, and it’s going to take a whole lot more than caffeine to get through this wedded mess.
Grinding Gears – AVAILABLE NOW!
In the final laps, it’s ALL or NOTHIN’
Jason’s entering his rookie season as a big time stock car driver in the national spotlight, but he’s no stranger to breakneck speeds, sponsor expectations, or the older women who’ve revved his engine since he was a teenager. He’s content to learn and indulge himself in fun until a blind date with a curvy smartass brings his boots to a screechin’ halt.
Alli’s strong, driven, and a recent law school graduate. She’s also on a self-imposed man hiatus. And despite the lure of a sexy, race car drivin’ cowboy, the good intentions of her friends, and an incredible job offer, she’s not giving in to the temptation.
Is she?
Jason knows he’s got one shot to prove himself to his new owners and his new high profile sponsor on the most famous super speedway of them all and… only one shot to win the heart of the woman he hopes is waiting for him at the finish line.
What inspires you to write? 
What one piece of advice do you wish you’d had when first starting out? 
